Brazen careerist
Where ambitious young professionals connect and grow
Email
Print
Laissez fair capitalism has been thoroughly discredited over the last several months. Yet Republican lawmakers and business interests are still clinging to their religion in the same way that astronomers during the Enlightenment were insisting that the world is flat, and the Sun revolves around the Earth.
We can trace the economic downturn to several key trends:
1. The deregulation of our financial markets, especially in the mortgage indust
For more timely, relevant, and engaging articles,
subscribe to Brazen Careerist.
- The Anti-Stalker’s Guide for Converting Online Contact into Real World Collaboration
- How To Find a Writing Partner Who Can Help You Achieve Your Goals and Make More Money
- A New Kind of Business Mover and Shaker
- Why You Might Be Better Off Without a Job After College
- Continuing Education: Extending Learning Beyond Your Campus Years
Comments
01.15.09
It's all about money baby. Never about religion, morals or what will benefit the masses. It's all about filling the wallets of the high-income 10%.
Anything that takes power and money from them is seen as evil, anti-capitalist, unchristian etc.
01.15.09
Tim,
Good post. A few quick observations:
1. Mortgage crisis was due to DE-regulation. End of story. I worked in that industry for fifteen years and I can tell you emphatically that is the truth.
2. Yes we need single pay. But doctors (and their lobbyists) do not want it. That is why we don't have it now. And that is why the version of health care reform we will have will be federally subsidized access to private insurance (outside of Medicare/Medicaid). Docs don't want one single entity telling them how much they will be paid, nor will they support a global health budget. Yes, employers would benefit hugely with single pay, and it goes without saying that the citizens would benefit as well.
3. Yes, America makes less and less for less and less money. That is a big reason why purchasing power has declined. Tell me all you want about how we all benefit from buying things from China, but the economic benefits one derives from cheap Chinese labor are exponentially offset by the reduction in domestic wages. If I were a GM line worker making $28 and now making $14 (and BTW, Toyota workers in the US make around $30 an hour so these wages were not unreasonable to begin with. If we had national health insurance, that alone could improve competitiveness in the auto industry), even a lifetime of savings by shopping at Wal Mart will not translate to me getting a lifetime of my other $14 an hour back. And the slave wages paid to foreign workers are not enough to consume anything we may still sell in the US. Not only do US workers lose their buying power, they have also lost many of their rights to organize to gain any of that back. Trust me, unions will have a renaissance.
If there is one thing that unregulated capitalism has proven time and time again is that it is the source of what has squashed the vaunted "American Dream" due to the greed and enrichment of the top 5% at the growing expense of everyone else.
01.15.09
Dawn- I keep saying this- but then we keep electing the same people over and over again and expect something different. There's a word for that kind of behavior.
Steve- I've been working for mortgage brokers for 3 years so I know. People who claim to be expert economists and yet blame mortgage woes on too much regulation would make me laugh if it wasn't so sad.
The only way we can really reform labor or health care is to get the money out of the election process- REAL campaign finance reform is the 1st step towards improving our lives here. But nobody wants to talk about it...
Got Something To Say?
Got Something To Say?
Not a Member? Brazen Careerist is a career management tool for next-generation professionals. Set up a free account today to comment on this post and start sharing your ideas. Learn more.
Login to view your networks!
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
